Are You Comfortable?

I was talking to a member of a local church a few months ago and in that conversation this church member told me, "I love this church. I feel so comfortable here." And that is what I want to talk about today. Comfort.

My wife and I attend different churches. We used to belong to the same church but when I noticed the church's teaching straying from the truth, I chose to leave. My wife chose to stay. The reason my wife stayed at her church was because she was comfortable there. She will be the first to tell you that she doesn't like change and finding another church we could both worship at was, sadly, too much change for her. But enough about that.

Are we as Christians supposed to be comfortable in our faith? I think Christians living in Syria, or ANY Muslim country, are anything but comfortable these days. It's hard to feel comfortable when you are a target.

I look at Paul, "an ambassador in chains" (Ephesians 6:20), and I think about all of the letters he wrote while in prison for his faith. He certainly was not comfortable.

It is my opinion that "comfort" and Christian" are two words that do not play well with one another. They are at opposite ends of the spectrum it seems to me. Comfort is where faith goes to die.

Let me ask you a few questions.

1. Are you comfortable in YOUR faith? By that I mean, has church become routine for you? Has it become the same each week? Do you sit in the same seat? Has church become something you just "do" rather that something you look forward to. Do you look forward to the routine and sameness of your worship? Is that right?

2. Are you comfortable in your relationships? This is a trickier question. Do we always do the same things in our marriages? You we go to work, come home, eat dinner, go to bed . . .  same routine, day in and day out? Is that living? Is that practicing love in our marriage relationship?

Too often we can take our relationships for granted, sometimes to the point of losing them. We need to nurture our relationships, invest in them. All earthly relationships are finite. They have an end. We should invest in our relationship with Christ. It is the only relationship that lives forever. We shouldn't get comfortable in our relationship with Jesus. His mercies are new every morning. We should live in our relationships with all people as if that were true for them as well. Love each other with a "new" love - the love of Christ.

Don't Get Comfortable - Brandon Heath